April 1, 2010

...and Usher loves everyone...

His new album, Raymond vs. Raymond dropped on Tuesday. His latest pleas of mercy singles have been in serious rotation on the R&B stations and his video for both “Daddy’s Home” and “Lil Freak” have done their thing on the new Cartoon Network 106 & Park. Yes, as a true Usher stan fan I did download the album Tuesday night – however I haven’t taken the time to review…so this will be a “to be continued” and I will give my insight upon completing two full listening sessions of the R&B Prince’s new crooning collection.

**Update: (April 5, 2010) iTunes and my iPod aren’t feeling each other right now, and I can’t upload the album so I can do my clean-and-listen routine. If all else fails, I will just stay connected to S-dot for an evening of blogging and get the review in.**

**Update: (April 20, 2010) So, I finally got a chance to listen to the album in its entirety, and no it’s not Confessions – but we all know there will never be another Confessions, *in my Smokey voice* “eva, eva, eva, eva, eva!!” However, it’s a well put together album, and we can all tell that Usher did some growing up, did some freaky things, and still has a passion for his art.

“There Goes My Baby” – an ode to the “one” the one that makes you smile when they walk in a room, when they send you a sext text message, when their ringtone plays on your cell phone.

“She Don’t Know” – the bad boy in Mr. Raymond, the one you really wanna screw hate to love.

“OMG” – dancers everywhere will fall in love with this one instantly – and it might be one of the freshest songs he has released in years.

Unlike “Here I Stand” this isn’t a catalog of songs forcing the idea that Usher has grown up, and is on to bigger and better things. “Raymond vs. Raymond” reminds us of why we fell in love with that sound in the first place, but let’s us know that he still has moves to make and room to grow.